


The Dangers of Dating in the Digital Age

by TheSecondBatgirl



Series: Unexpected Verse [3]
Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers Dino Thunder, Power Rangers Zeo
Genre: F/F, F/M, post-Once a Ranger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-18
Updated: 2011-04-18
Packaged: 2017-10-18 08:16:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/186831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSecondBatgirl/pseuds/TheSecondBatgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Rangers gossip chain is always effective, but not always accurate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dangers of Dating in the Digital Age

Adam's cell phone went off, the familiar series of beeps that signified it was a former Ranger calling him. He ignored it, and curled up against Kira, concentrating on her breathing. She was still sleeping, so he kissed her bare shoulder gently, and then tried to go back to sleep. That was easier than it sounded, because barely a minute later his phone went off again.

He suddenly hated that ringtone.

This time he answered it.

"What?" he said grumpily.

"Well, good morning to you, too!" Aisha's all-too-cheerful voice answered.

"The world had really better be ending," Adam snarled.

"From the way Tommy is talking, I would say so!" Adam could practically see her bouncing back and forth in her urge to find out exactly what was going on. "He called Jason, who called Trini, who called me. Are you really sleeping with a high school student?"

"This is going to be one of those conversations where I want to kill Tommy by the end of it, isn't it?"

"You still didn't answer my question." Aisha sounded more amused than angry, at least.

"No, I am not sleeping with a high school student," Adam said, and he could feel Kira start to stir. She yawned, and rolled over so that she was facing him. "Aisha, I'm in bed with an absolutely gorgeous Yellow Ranger, so frankly, I have way more important things to do than finish this conversation."

"You so have a type," Aisha said.

"She even sings," Adam said, and then he hung up on her, deliberately turning his cell phone off.

"Mmm," Kira said. "Morning."

"Morning," Adam said, as he leaned over to kiss her again.

"What was that all about?" Kira asked.

Adam rolled his eyes. "Tommy got the Ranger gossip chain started. Seems he told them I'm sleeping with a high school student."

"I could hurt him, if you want," Kira offered.

"No," Adam said. "I vote that we just send the Pink Rangers after him."

"Oh?" Kira asked, and she stretched in a way that made Adam wonder why they were talking about Tommy anyway.

"Trust me," he said, as he kissed her again. "It'll work." And then he concentrated on driving all thoughts of Tommy from both of their minds.

*

When they finally got up and out of bed, Adam checked his cell phone while Kira made coffee. There were a ton of texts and messages, including one from Alpha. Adam actually felt vaguely guilty about that one - he had told Alpha to teleport himself to his apartment, since there was no way that he would have fit in the car. He hadn't meant to abandon the robot, especially not after all the time that Alpha had spent in a box. He'd just... gotten distracted. He didn't even have memory issues like Tommy did to blame it on.

He thumbed through the texts, most of whom appeared to have already heard the real gossip from Aisha or Tori. (He really owed the Blue Ninja Storm Ranger something. Anything.) And Aisha was in full on Mama-Bear protect the cubs mode, so Adam should be safe from some of the worst of it. Nobody was really stupid enough to cross Aisha.

"Your friends are in gossip mode?" Kira asked, as she settled down and handed him a coffee. Hers was black, and Adam had no idea how anyone could drink it that way. He needed sugar in his coffee, but after their time at the Hartford mansion, they both knew how to make the other one coffee.

"You have no idea," Adam said, as he took a long glorious sip of the coffee that Kira had promised him the night before. "I'm pretty sure every single Ranger has heard by now - one of the texts was from Billy, and he's still on Aquitar."

"That's the first Blue Ranger, right?" Kira asked hesitantly. She'd never met him.

Adam nodded. "Yep, he's the one who sent Alpha to Angel Grove. I'd actually been on my way to pick him up when the Sentinel Knight showed up to recharge my power coin. I guess Billy knew he'd be needed."

"My boys," Kira began, and Adam knew she meant her former teammates, "are not stupid enough to cross me, so they'll be on our side." She grinned wickedly. "Were you serious about sending the Pink Rangers after him?"

"Thought had crossed my mind," Adam admitted.

Kira picked up Adam's phone, which was buzzing again.

"It's from Joel," she said. "Want me to open it?"

Adam groaned. "No," he said, as he took the phone and flipped through his contact lists.

"Adam!" Kimberly answered on the first ring. "Tell me all about it! Are you really having a _passionate affair_ with Hayley?"

"How did I get from sleeping with a high school student to sleeping with Hayley?" Adam demanded. "Not that I'm doing either of these things," he added hastily. "No, I'm dating Kira Ford." and he looked nervously over at Kira, who nodded her agreement

"Tommy's yellow? That's great! She's totally your type, even if she is a little young for you. And you haven't been serious about someone since you broke up with whatshername two years ago. She wasn't good for you anyway."

"Yeah, everyone has made that abundantly clear," Adam grumbled. "But seriously, Kim, I need a favor."

"Oh?"

"I need you to come to Reefside and get revenge on Tommy for accusing me of being a pedophile. Bring Kat with you."

"Technically, it isn't pedophilia if it's a high school student," Kimberly said. "But sure, I'll call her. I need to return her call anyway - Aisha absolutely refused to give either of us the details. All she said was that you'd hung up on her to have sex."

"And that isn't giving out the details?" Adam asked. Then he remembered that this was Aisha he was talking about, and she could have been _way_ more graphic.

"And I can't wait to meet Kira!" Kimberly said cheerfully. "For some reason, Tommy never really introduced me to any of his team."

Adam winced as he realized that he was about to introduce Kira to the force that was Hurricane Kimberly. This might not have been his best idea ever.

"See you soon!" Kimberly said, before hanging up.

"You okay?" Kira asked.

"This is either going to go really badly or... well, it won't matter," Adam said glumly.

"Cheer up," Kira said, putting down her coffee. "Do you have anywhere to be today?"

"Not really," Adam said. "Rocky owed me, so he said he'd run things at the dojo until I got home."

"Then I think we should go shower," Kira said, "and then go get some lunch. If you'd care to join me?" She dropped her robe as she walked off, and Adam eagerly followed behind her.

*

The Former Rangers generally fell into two camps - there were the ones that eagerly embraced each new news report of the Rangers, and generally tried to seek out the new teams, and the ones that tried to pretend that there were no new Rangers. Adam generally fell into the former camp. The only team he hadn't paid attention to was Dino Thunder. He'd been interested in them, up until he'd recognized Tommy's very distinctive fighting style as the Black Ranger. He'd spent most of that year dating a non-Ranger, and determinedly pretending that there was nothing interesting in Reefside. Sara had been a disaster - they'd been horrible for each other. It was always hard to date non-Rangers, there was a whole piece of your past you couldn't tell them. And she wasn't even someone who had been recognized as having Ranger potential - you could always tell. And she was, if anything, a Ranger groupie. She'd never found out about Adam, or any of them, but still.

It had ended badly.

Adam hadn't had a serious relationship since, which had concerned Aisha. Actually, everything concerned Aisha. The Honorable Aisha DeSantos-Campbell, Congresswoman for Angel Grove's district, still managed to find the time to meddle in Adam's social life.

He could understand why she was worried - the last time Adam had been as depressed as he'd been during his relationship with Sara, he'd tried to use a broken morpher. The same morpher that was now repaired by the Sentinel Knight. It was probably some sort of metaphor for his life, but he didn't want to think too much about that.

Instead, he concentrated on looking for Kim and Kat through the crowd at Hayley's Cyber-Space. He had no idea how Kira had convinced him to hold the meeting there - it seemed like it would be a bad idea. This was Tommy's territory.

Starting to think of things as Tommy's territory was probably not a good idea.

"Don't be nervous," Kira said as she squeezed his hand. "They're your friends, after all."

"It's just been a while since I've seen them," Adam said, smiling at her.

"Something we need to correct," a soft Australian-accented voice said, as Kat and Kim took their seats across from them.

"You two did that on purpose, didn't you?" he accused.

Kim laughed. "You aren't the only ninja in the group," she teased. Then she turned to Kira. "Hi!" she said cheerfully, extending a hand. "Hurt Adam and I'll hurt you worse, okay?"

Kira nodded solemnly. "I'm not planning on it," she promised. "I like him."

"Good," Kat said. "Now that we've got that out of the way, we want all the gossip. How's Xander? He's my new favorite Green Ranger," she added conspiratorially.

Adam wasn't sure if he should be insulted or not.

"You're wearing black," Kat pointed out, rolling her eyes.

"Xander's fine," Kira said. "He was pretty awesome - I really want to meet the rest of his team. They sound great."

"And they have capes," Kim added. "Why didn't we ever get capes?"

"Because they look ridiculous?" Adam offered, and Kimberly glared at him.

"I will refrain from mentioning some of the things you wore in high school in front of your new girlfriend, if you stop mocking the fashion sense of those who are cooler than you," she informed him.

Adam wasn't stupid. He shut up.

"So, Kira!" Kimberly said, as she patted Adam's arm gently. "Tell us all about yourself. We should have met you ages ago, but somehow we never seemed to run into you at the reunions!"

"More importantly," Kat added, "we want the gossip from last night."

Adam blushed, and Kira giggled. "I don't think the details are any of your business," she said.

Kat laughed. "Oh, we don't need all of those details, at least not while Adam is sitting here. But tell us what happened with Tommy."

"He just freaked out a little," Kira said. "I mean, God, considering how he's been mooning over Hayley since I've known him, you would think he'd be a little more understanding. And he was fine when Conner and Ethan started dating, but suddenly I'm about to have some fun and he acts like I'm not allowed? Ugh." She paused for a second. "I think he might have been more weirded out by the situation," she added finally. "I mean, he did catch us in a rather compromising situation."

Kim and Kat burst into giggles, and Adam began to wonder why he'd ever thought this was a good idea.

"That still doesn't excuse him calling people up and screaming that Adam was sleeping with a student," Kim pointed out.

"I haven't been his student in three years," Kira said. "I don't even call him Dr. O anymore. Well, most of the time, anyway."

"Since when?" Tommy's voice came from behind Adam, and Adam turned around to glare at his old friend, who at least had the grace to look embarrassed.

"Since now," Kira said coldly.

"Does it help if I say I'm sorry?" Tommy asked.

"It would," Adam said quietly. He looked over at the Pink Rangers, and wondered what sort of revenge they had been plotting. "We may have all overreacted a little."

"Too bad you apologized," Kat said cheerfully. "I had some great ideas for revenge." Kimberly giggled, and Tommy looked pained.

Kira laughed. "Okay, Dr. O," she said. "Why don't you join us? I'm sure you want to hear all about the Overdrive team, anyway."


End file.
